Scalable processes for synthetic aviation fuel
With its ‘aerobrew’ process, Metafuels has developed an innovative fuel manufacturing technology, which efficiently turns sustainable methanol, produced from renewable energy, water and carbon dioxide, into aviation fuel. Such synthetic SAFs are crucial to decarbonizing aviation. Metafuels is presently establishing a demonstration SAF production plant at the Paul Scherrer Institute in Villigen, Switzerland. Parallel to this, the company is also developing its first commercial SAF production plant in Rotterdam.
“This agreement with SWISS and the Lufthansa Group is both a milestone for us and a clear affirmation of the role that synthetic SAF will play in the future of aviation,” says Saurabh Kapoor, CEO of Metafuels. “It’s particularly significant, too, that we have secured SWISS, Switzerland’s national airline, as our first partner from the aviation sector.”
“We are united with SWISS in our shared objective of paving a viable and scalable way to providing lower-emission air travel,” Kapoor continues. “With both rising demand projected and tighter regulatory provisions ahead, synthetic fuels will only gain in importance. And we’re convinced that Switzerland has a key role to play in all these developments.”
A step towards securing future SAF supplies
The ramping-up of synthetic aviation fuel production is still in its early phases. But the production capacities presently available and planned are unlikely to be sufficient to fully achieve today’s decarbonization goals. An acceleration in the scaling-up of SAF production is also essential to the transformation of the aviation sector. So in forging its new partnership with Metafuels, SWISS is taking a further major step in securing its own early access to synthetic SAF. The move is part of the broader initiative by the Lufthansa Group to actively support the development and bringing to market of sustainable aviation fuels, via research partnerships, pilot projects, industry alliances, customer-oriented SAF offers and more.
SWISS continues to take extensive action to minimize the carbon dioxide emissions from its flight operations. Along with investing in advanced and fuel-efficient aircraft, the use of sustainable aviation fuel is one of the prime levers for reducing such carbon emissions. SWISS has been pursuing various targeted initiatives and collaborations for many years now together with the Lufthansa Group, further partners and its customers to support and promote the development of sustainable fuels and the scaling-up of their production.
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